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Buru (extinct creature)
The Buru was an aquatic reptile said to have lived in Jiro (also spelled and pronounced as Ziro) valley, a small town in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India (WP), at some undefined time in the past. In 1947, Professor Wikipedia:Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf was the first westerner to be told about the Buru. By that time, the animals had reportedly already become extinct in the valley. According to the Apatani elders, when their forefathers migrated to Jiro valley, the valley was primarily a marsh which was populated by Burus. The Apatani people decided to settle in the valley because of its fertility and good climate. But every now and then they would have confrontations with burus. So they decided to drain the marsh of its water and thus eliminate the Burus. Most of the Burus died because of the drainage, and many supposedly went underground into the 'soo' (springs). The last Buru was said to be reported by a young woman, who sighted it in a spring one night while she was drawing water. The startled lady told her father about the incident. The next day the whole village helped fill the spring with stones and clay. Identity Traditionally, there has been speculation that the Buru was an unidentified member of the order crocodilia. Tellingly, crocodiles or alligators are also called "Buru" by the Apatanis. There is large population of crocodiles which live in caves in North Africa, quite far from open water, so an underground existence is not improbable for persecuted Indian crocodiles. The mere fact that crocodilians are called "Buru" may not however be very significant, since the Buru is described with monitor-like characteristics such as an elongated neck and a forked tongue. The native name of the Komodo dragon is "Land Crocodile". Both Wikipedia:Bernard Heuvelmans. Heuvelmans,Bernard "Annotated Checklist of Apparantly Unknown Animals with which Cryptozoology is Concerned," CRYPTOZOOLOGY, Vol 5, 1986, P.1, ISSN 0736-7023 and Wikipedia:Roy Mackal regard the Buru to be a large Komodo dragon-like monitor lizard, and there are fossils of such a creature to be found in the Indian subcontinent. Heuvelmans notes similar reported creatures from Western India under the name of "jhoors" cite Heuvelmans, ibid}}, where they seem to merge into the Iranian traditional dragon or ahi (Wikipedia:Azi Dahaka), which in Iranian art is basically a local stylistic adaptation of the Chinese dragon. George Eberhart notes rumors of a similar creature in the Tigris marshes of Iraq, called the afa, possibly the same thing as ahi. Heuvelmans also notes in his checklist of unknown animals that similar reports to the buru also come from Burma, and they might also relate to a reported lizardlike Meikong River monster. Cryptozoologist Wikipedia:Karl Shuker claims that the Buru was a giant lungfish noting that this provides a far more comprehensive, comparable match not only in terms of morphology but also with regard to behaviour. Shuker believes this explains the Buru's alleged ability to survive hidden at the bottom of lakes during the dry season. Shuker's view admittedly does nothing to account for the various other buru-like creatres as cited in this article. It also does not account for the specified features of the long neck and forked tongue. References External links * The Buru, Giant Lizards and Giant Crocodiles Infobox Paranormalcreatures |Creature_Name = Buru |Image_Caption = |Grouping = Wikipedia:Cryptid |AKA = |Country = Wikipedia:India |Region = Wikipedia:Arunachal Pradesh |Habitat = Marsh |Status = }} Wikipedia:Template:Cryptozoology Category:Reptile cryptids Category:Cryptozoology Category:Fauna of India Category:Fauna of South Asia